ST. AGATHA, Maine — A community group is working to ensure that the Long Lake Public Library can keep serving patrons in St. Agatha and surrounding towns for years to come.
The Daughters of Wisdom Fund for Long Lake Public Library was established last month by a small group of community members dedicated to keeping the library alive. The name honors a French charitable group founded more than two centuries ago.
The library is primarily funded through an annual patron campaign and grants, which bring in roughly $10,000 each year. The nonprofit facility also receives an annual contribution of $2,500 from the town of St. Agatha, and $250 each from the town of Frenchville and Aroostook County government. But it’s not enough.
The new fund is critical because of rising costs and less support from the Maine State Library due to federal cuts, said Jacqueline Ayotte, one of the library’s founders, who currently sits on the board of directors.
The library first opened in July 2007. Once the library officially gained nonprofit status, it received books and assistance from outside organizations, including the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Ayotte said.
“People were very generous,” she said. “We got books and books. We even got a 3,000-book collection from Portland.”
The library expanded in 2014 when the Long Lake Regional Health Center, which operated in the same building, closed. That left an additional 1,200 square feet for the library, and there was interest in using that space for research and archives. The library received a $50,000 Next Generation Foundation Grant to help renovate the area.
In 2017, the library added a paid director role. Lauren Paradis was hired as the director in 2022, and is working while attending school online. Paradis often came to the library as a child, Ayotte said.
The library also has someone come in and clean twice a week for a couple of hours, but everyone else volunteers.
Ayotte said there are now fewer opportunities for discussion groups and speakers because of recent cuts made to the Maine State Library.
The people involved with the new fund are connected to the St. John Valley community, but prefer to stay behind the scenes, Ayotte said. The donors include six St. Agatha High School graduates who gave a combined $27,000.
The fund is not intended to pay for a specific project or renovation, but will ensure that the library can continue serving the greater St. Agatha community.
The money won’t be spent frivolously, Ayotte said. The funds are overseen by the Maine Community Foundation and managed by the Long Lake Public Library Board of Directors. The foundation distributes a portion of the money quarterly to the library.
Paradis hosts a children’s story time event every other week and has also hosted discussion groups for organizations like the Maine Humanities Council.
“With the funding, I think their intentions and our intentions are to keep the library running how it is and to continue our events, like story times and our adult activities,” Paradis said.
The project also maintains the memory of the Daughters of Wisdom in the St. John Valley. The Daughters were founded in France in 1703 as a Catholic religious institution of women dedicated to helping people in need.
According to a recent research project completed by Ayotte, St. Agatha Pastor Rev. Henri Gory in the early 1900s requested that the Daughters of Wisdom come from France to America for medical and teaching assistance. More Daughters eventually came to America and taught at schools throughout the St. John Valley region.
Looking ahead, Ayotte said that with Paradis leading the library, she is confident they can handle whatever the future may bring.
“We take it as it comes,” Ayotte said, “and that’s the value of having a librarian that knows what’s what and is alert to what is going on.”
